


Gelato

by dorkpatroller



Category: Fire Emblem: Kakusei | Fire Emblem: Awakening
Genre: Beach Day, Multi, adventures to get shells!, do it for the bae, gelato
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-24
Updated: 2019-07-24
Packaged: 2020-07-19 02:41:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,600
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19966702
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dorkpatroller/pseuds/dorkpatroller
Summary: Sumia can't swim, and she couldn't find a shell she wanted, and Stahl and Zohara really think she deserves the best shell the ocean has to offer.





	Gelato

The water at this beach is so clear it’s hard to believe he’s even in water. His eyes don’t burn when he opens them to it. If not for the gentle push of the waves he might think he was just… floating instead of swimming. But he is swimming, and one glance up at Zohara reminds him why. 

They’re on a secret mission.

Ah, well, it isn’t that secret and it’s not that critical of a mission. He tilts his gaze up and Zohara is… so funny under the water. Her hair is like a big, pink cloud floating around her head. Her cheeks are puffed out while she’s holding her breath. She’s squinting in the water, maybe it’s bothering her more than him, but she waves him over and he follows her. 

She swims sort of the way a child might. She’s not quite mastered it, but she can get where she’s going. Stahl sort of wonders if she forgot how to do it when she lost most of her memories… but she picked it up quickly. 

Sumia never picked it up. She sinks rather than swims, and she’s come so close to drowning enough times that she chooses not to bother trying. She’s still having a good time at the beach, but she’s enjoying a book instead of a swim. 

What caused this mission is that there was an unjust lack of pretty seashells on the shore. Sumia wandered along the shoreline with them for a while, the clear waves gently brushing over her ankles, but ultimately she found that there were only a few broken, small shells. After she stepped on one of them and hurt her foot, she decided to call off the hunt. 

She sat down with her book and, naturally, the dynamic duo of Stahl and Zohara decided it was time to find their girlfriend a seashell. Not just any shell, mind you, but the perfect shell. 

The problem is that they don’t want to take a shell from something still living in it. They’ve been looking and found a few, but when they tip it upside down a hermit crab or an angry slug will poke out to see what disturbed their rest. 

Zohara leads him deeper out to the ocean. It’s harder to get far, the pushback from the waves is stronger than he would have expected under the water, but if she can do it so can he. He’s starting to think maybe he should have surfaced for air first when Zohara disappears through a tiny crevice between two slabs of rock. She peeks her head back out and waves him through.

He doesn’t even think he can fit through there! He’s not exactly small like she is. But against his better judgment he squeezes through, and thank goodness on the other side there’s time for him to swim up and break the surface of the water to breathe. 

“Stahl,” Zohara pants momentarily. She pushes her bangs out of her face and turns to look out over the shore. They’re in a little cove, otherwise surrounded by rocks that don’t look climbable. It’s like a secret pocket of the beach hidden away from anyone else. “Look,” she says. 

He’s still gathering his bearings and catching his own breath, but he does look at the shore too. There are a plethora of shells there, untouched by anyone else because this cove is a hideaway. Surely one of them will be the perfect shell for Sumia. 

The shell they pick out is bigger than he expected. It’s a conch shell that spirals together, and the inside is glittery, soft pink. It’s got bumps and uneven texture on the outside, but that pink inside is incredibly smooth. When they found it, best of all, a lot of sand poured out of it… making it unlikely any critters were living inside. 

This is the perfect shell. Zohara’s smile is bright and proud when she tucks it into a pouch she has belted to her hips. “Su is going to  _ love this!”  _ She whispers excitedly. “C’mon, let's go back.” 

Stahl swears that getting through that hole the second time is harder than the first. For a moment he genuinely wonders if he’s going to spend the rest of his life trapped in this cove. He manages to squeeze his shoulders through, though, and Zohara pulls on his arms to help dislodge his hip until finally they’re both free and they can break the surface. 

The only problem is when they get back to the beach, Sumia isn’t where they left her. She was laying on her belly before, under this umbrella, on top of a towel, her delicate ankles twisted together in the air while she read over a book Cordelia let her borrow. 

Now she’s gone. “You don’t think she left..?” Stahl asks. It’s close to lunchtime, maybe she got hungry and went to go get something to eat? Stahl is hungry--that only seems like a rational answer. But Zohara shakes her head no. 

“She wouldn’t have left without us! Besides,” She crouches down and picks up a book from the sand. “She wouldn’t have left Cordelia’s book behind if she was leaving. Or her towel! Unless there was foul play involved…” 

“Foul play?” 

Stahl and Zohara turn around quickly to see Sumia is standing right behind them. She’s a vision, really. Her hair isn’t neatly styled like usual, it’s just loose. It’s a little frizzy at the ends where it was wet by the sea and then dried out, and it’s a little windblown. Sort of like if she were a mermaid, maybe. She has a swimsuit that’s the same color as Zohara’s, but it wraps around her whole middle instead of being in two pieces. She’s also got a sheer, beige shawl wrapped up around her shoulders and hanging down her body. It has a button that clasps it in the front. That part isn’t supposed to get wet, he imagines, but it makes her look like a princess. And a hat! It’s like the perfect topper to make this outfit she’s got on totally irresistibly cute. It’s a floppy hat the same color as the coverup she’s wearing, and it’s got a few flowers tucked into the brim. 

She’s also got three cones in her hands. Two are balanced in one, the other is in her other hand. They’ve all got two scoops of what looks like ice cream on them and Stahl is trying to calculate how she managed to carry back that ice cream without dropping it. He loves her, but she’s absolutely the most disaster-prone person he knows. “Is everything okay?” she asks. 

“You’re back!” Zohara says. She sets the book down and wanders closer. The moment she does Sumia puts one of the cones in her hands. 

“I went to get a snack. Anna says this isn’t ice cream, it’s gelato… but I tasted it, and I think they must be the same thing…” She passes a cone to Stahl, too. “I wanted to ask you what flavors you wanted, but I didn’t see you two… so I guessed. 

Melting gelato is Stahl's current priority. He thinks it does taste a lot like ice cream, but the texture isn’t just the same and it’s kind of… amazing. Sumia smiles at him and then in a smooth motion, she sits down on her beach towel again. “You didn’t even drop it?” Stahl asks.

Sumia’s cheeks turn pink. “Uhm… This was actually my, er, second trip.” Zohara sits down beside her and giggles. She leans her head on Sumia’s shoulder and she gasps--probably because Zohara’s hair is still wet. Stahl sits on the other side of her, too. “A-Anyway! Where did you two wander off to?” 

“Oh!” Zohara shifts her knees to balance the gelato cone between them. Stahl thinks that’s a  _ terrible idea _ so he reaches out and just holds it for her. She sticks her tongue out at him, but then afterward she produces the conch shell from her pouch. “We knew you wanted a pretty shell, so we went to find you one.” 

She presents the sparkling shell to Sumia and when her hands are free she takes her cone back. Sumia turns the conch shell over in her free hand, looking down at it with those pretty eyes. “You went and found a shell just for me?” She asks. 

Stahl can imagine it wasn’t that big of a deal to her if she found a shell to keep or not, but they made it a big deal because they love her. She never asks for much! She’s always willing to give and give and never takes the time to get. A shell is a bare minimum of what someone like her deserves. 

So he leans over and kisses the side of her forehead, just over her temple and some of her bangs. “A pretty shell for our pretty girl,” He assures her. 

She sets the shell down in her lap and brings her hand up to rub at her eye. “I’m gonna cry,” She whines softly. Zohara chuckles and lays her head back on Sumia’s shoulder. “I love you two so much… and all I got you was icecream… and not even flavors you asked for!” 

“Hey, I love ice cream!” Stahl says. He lays his cheek on top of her head. “It’s perfect.” 

“You two are perfect,” Sumia mumbles. She doesn’t sound teary, but he can tell she’s debating it. He hums and casts a glance down to Zohara. They totally nailed it.


End file.
